Back in the iPhone’s earliest years, Apple offered only one iPhone model starting at around $650 (unlocked); however, as the years go by with smartphones becoming more mainstream, the iPhone started to evolve to feature larger screens, and Apple started to offer multiple models for iPhone. 2017 saw the tenth anniversary since the original iPhone was introduced and launched, and to celebrate that milestone, Apple introduced the iPhone X on September 2017, which featured an all-screen design packed with so many new technologies such as Face ID and the OLED display. It was also the first time that we saw an iPhone starting at $999. People initially thought that paying $1,000 for Apple’s highest-end iPhone was ridiculous, but it turned out that customers were willing to pay that much for a latest and greatest technology to ever come on an iPhone, and Apple’s profits soared even higher thanks to the flagship iPhone’s starting price.
The iPhone XS replaced the iPhone X at that $999 starting price point, and the iPhone 11 Pro and its successors had that same starting price as well. So for eight years, Apple’s most premium iPhone started at $999; however, that trend ended with the launch of the iPhone 17 Pro since Apple dropped the 128GB storage tier, and thus the iPhone 17 Pro now starts with 256GB at $1,099. However, with new addition of the 2TB storage option for only the iPhone 17 Pro Max, Apple is now selling an iPhone model priced at $1,999. For that much of money, you can get either an 11-inch M4 iPad Pro (Wi-Fi, 2TB) or even the base configuration of the M4 Pro MacBook Pro. For most people, no one is going to be filling that space up quickly for every tasks; however, there’s still a use case for that storage tier. With more content creators and videographers using iPhones for video production, enough storage is never enough. ProRes video, especially at 4K 60fps, fills up storage very quickly, and with the addition of ProRes RAW on iPhone 17 Pro along with a major update to Final Cut Camera, higher quality video translates to bigger file sizes. So having more internal storage gives the most advanced videographers more breathing room to create their next major project.
iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max will be available Friday, September 19.
